The Kick-Plate Headache

Here in the School of Block, we’ve been discussing the dynamic of the kick-plate with other elite goalies since January, which was when we really started to see it’s effect on many different types of plays throughout the NHL season.

After Brian Campbell’s interview on Versus during second intermission of Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, we figured it was a perfect time to diagram the impact of the kick-plate and then discuss it with you in another glorious School of Block session.

Campbell was asked what his options were as a blueliner when it comes to getting more traffic in front of Chris Osgood. He answered something along the lines of, “using the lively kick-plate and boards this rink has” along with obvious things like getting bodies in front of Osgood and funneling players to the net. But his mention of the kick-plate reinforced the importance of it’s rising impact on plays around the juicy, prime scoring area we call the low-slot.

The diagram above, like the one we created for our dissection of the Turco Transition, is very straightforward.

Every goalie in the world will agree that a lively kick-plate behind the net creates absolute chaos in the slot and crease area. Along with some simple logic and geometry, we’ll break down why the play is so dangerous for goalies and why it causes us headaches.

First of all, there’s no way to know for sure exactly what the defenseman with the puck is going to do on a play that’s set up like this. Geometry proves that the closer the puck-carrier is to the boards, the more options and angles he has to work with. The closer he is to the center of the ice, the harder it will be for him to use the kick-plate as an option to get the puck to the forward on the opposite post.

That’s all the goalie has to work with in this situation. Other than that, we are exposed on another side, which creates many more angles in the shot spectrum. So because of the extra options the kick-plate creates, the goal for all defensemen should be to use the bank-pass more often. But why exactly is it so effective in making goalies squirm?

Because of what it forces us to do with our movement, footwork and positioning. Not only do we have to read the angles of the original shot from the point, but a puck that goes off the kick-plate also forces us to travel to our opposite post, which is the longest distance possible to travel within the crease.

A goalie has to go from outside their crease in a set and ready position for the original shot and then react to that shot before rotating in the butterfly, pushing off and somehow getting the shoulders square to the shooter waiting just beyond the opposite post. It’s extremely hard to accomplish, even for the most flexible goaltenders. Unless you can do the splits or have the long legs and arms of Roberto Luongo, you’ll probably have to lunge or dive to get across.

Secondly, once the puck has been fired towards the kick-plate, a goalie has no other choice than to lose sight of the puck. Once it passes a certain point that exceeds the peripheral vision of the goalie, it’s a guessing game from there on out. The angle the puck travels and kicks off the back-boards could be just about anything and even comes down to the rotation and velocity of the puck and the exact point it hits the boards.

So when a goalie loses vision of the puck and has to turn his head quickly on a swivel to the opposite side, there’s always an uneasy moment where the eyes are not honed in on the puck. That’s when goalies tend to panic the most and in such a chaotic situation as a goal-mouth scramble from a puck coming off the kick-plate, you better believe the goalie is going to enter scramble mode at some point or another. Of course this won’t happen EVERY time, but put a couple of bodies around the crease area to further infiltrate the goalie’s clear vision and it will force them to scramble.

Basically you just need to understand the dynamic of options, passing lanes and setup plays to realize just what the kick-plate provides for an offensive system. You saw it happen first-hand week after week, month after month. More shots wide on purpose and more back-door plays.

You hear coaches and players and analysts talking about “getting a goalie to move East to West” in order to open up holes. Well, what better way to get a goalie moving than to fire a puck wide and bank it off the kick-plate in an attempt to create chaos in front of the net. Park a forward backdoor so he can take that puck off the boards cleanly and you’ll score more goals than you ever expected. And if you don’t score, you’ll at least create scoring opportunities, rebounds and goal mouth scrambles.

Instant offense provided by a piece of yellow plastic. And the headache for goaltenders will only continue to swell as time goes on and more defensemen use this play more effectively.

I’m not too worried – goalies always find a way to combat these things. I’m sure some coach out there will figure out an effective way to combat the dynamic of the kick-plate. Until then, it’s a wild scene when it happens.